Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1887-02-03
For the HERALD.
s'SOuthward HO! A Spell OF Sunshine. -

in the North, about Christmas, when the
melancholy sun hung low above the
frozen earth, which seemed hoIelessly
iron-bound, | have longed, like the an
eient Cloths, to fling myself upon the
sunny Southland. So did this year.
began to fling myself, so to speak,
at Glen Haven. 1t twas my first visit to
the Glen since ii became railroad Elk
cept for the neat little depot and the steel
track with entertainments and cuts,
could see little change in the old place
since when, newly enlisted soldier lad,
reveled at the grand farewell dance
which the citizens gave our company in
the big old stone warehouse.
Fred Hess, long ago, when rs "A.
Reifsteck" he was tramping cores
pondent of the HERALD, likened Glen
Haven to
THE island-y alley Of Avilion.
Where falls not hail or rain, or any snow"
But the snow was falling fast enough
when bumped over its frozen ruts to
the depot to take the evening train to St.
Louis. The road is well managed, but
| found one thing sadly lacking A
through ticket could not be had SO |
bought one to Fulton. Before reaching
that point ! took the precaution to ask
the conductor how long we would stop
there. lie said about minute, if we
had good luck. This was altogether too
short a time to buy another ticket and
have my trunk reehecked. and if | had
not looked after the matter before reach
ing that point ] would prob ably have got
left
Darkness set in before we reached
Cassvlle, and all | could see of Grant
county were the nobby little depots along
down the line.
When | started Manitoba blizzard
was rapidly coming down. and as it
didn't stop at small stations nor wait at
crossings for delayed trains, it passed us
III tiiC hiSHtt anu was III 81 i%Oulo WIN
all its baggage unpacked, ready to give
me rousing matinee next day. | have
been in St Louis many times, but | have
no pleasant recollections of its weather.
If they ever have any pleasant weather,
in any of the four seasons, may | be
there to see.
| attended the opera that afternoon.
1t was commonplace performance I'M
til it came to the ''March of the ANA
IONS" and then | ceased to be bored
The manoeuvres of the Amazons, in pre-
cision and grace. UNNECESSARILY sur
passed the finest drilling OF any crack
company ever saw. Their garments
were profusely spangled- not with COM
mon tinsel spangles, but with electric
Jewels, hundreds of them, which out
shone the rarest diamonds. AS the vivid
calcium lamps threw their many colored
and parti-colored glare upon The stage,
the effect of these glittering vestments
was wonderful at least to country
Jake.
had heard that the bankrupt ST.
Louis, Ark. a. Texas, alias Cotton Belt
road had changed hands and was now Il
broad gauge and well managed, and !
was beguiled into buying ticket to Lit
tie Rock over it, at a cut of $3.50 below
the Iron Mountain rate. Once more |
regretted it. It h as indeed become a
board guage, but it is as miserably mis-
managed as it was last winter when it
stranded me here and there along the
dreary way 1t leaves East st. Louis by
new route and running to Du Quoin,
there takes the Illinois Central track to
Cairo That part of it went well enough
and arrived at Cairo at two or three
clock in the morning, and there my
woes began again.
Going to II hotel, | was shown a bed
room. 1t was very cold night and
when | sounded the shallow depth of the
mattrass which was TO lie between me
and the Arctic region under the bed, my
experience told me il would not be safe
to remove more than my overcoat and
shoes, and ! didn't But in an hour
regretted that had taken off NY shoes.
Over the head of the bed was written
with bold pencil. Beware of Bugs!
There's millions in it." The landlord
had entered no protest, and at the
time it was written | suppose the legend
read fair and true. But it was not so
now. Weeks of cold feet and maybe
many supperless night had given those
bugs, SO gay and festive when the sum-
mer ended, the consumption. and they
had gone hence to where the weary
cease from troubling and the traveller is
at rest. night and day. and where the
wicked flea. when no man pursueth but
the righteous, is as bold as lion.
The breakfast seemed very Sahara
without an OASIS, and yet | am not 4
dainty fellow as to my grub. e there
learned that the cook had short, stiff,
dark hair. but whereabouts parted the
hash didn't reveal. As never saw that
individual. | had no desire to carry away
lock of his or her hair, either within
me or without. If / had desired 1t as a
memento, how could have carried il in
my vest pocket along with "a plate of
dreary, tallowy hash--and life seemed
to me too short TO separate the two. SO
left them both and turned Respondent
" away-left them there in the hush of
that dark and solitary room.'
The landlord was an old Missouri
river steamboat captain, and his yarns
were darn sight better than his beds.
He may have known how to walk a
steamboat on stills over sandbar that
stuck right out of the water, but he
didn't know how to keep hotel
have been at Cairo many times but
scarcely have any pleasant memories Of
it. ] have seen it in flood and frost in
mud aud snow-when it was a little
island like a deep dish with the swollen
Ohio threatening TO pour over one side